Vegetables

Method

Prepare your chicken for the marinade by removing any excess fat and skin (Photo 1 above). If you have boned a whole chicken as I have, remove the excess bone such as the backbone, rib cage and pelvis

To prepare the marinade, mix all the ingredients together with a whisk in a container deep enough to accommodate the chicken (Photo 2 above). Refrigerate for 2 – 24 hours.

To prepare the vegetables, peel and dice into large chunks – Use the photo 3 above as a guide. Add the vegetables to a baking tray and mix well with the garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, rosemary and oil ensuring each piece of vegetable is thoroughly coated. Cook in a moderate oven for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on quantity. Check every 15 – 20 minutes, basting the vegetables in the oil as needed.

To cook, place the well drained chicken into a baking dish that has been lined with aluminium foil (shiny side against the meat). Sprinkle with a little paprika to the skin before placing into a moderate oven (200°C) for 40 minutes to one hour. Check every 15 – 20 minutes, and adjust cooking time as needed for quantity.

Observations

The chicken was silky smooth, moist and delicious. The trick here is to check the chicken regularly to ensure it isn’t drying out. To test if the chicken is cooked thoroughly, piece the flesh with a fork. If the juices run clear, its cooked. If no juices run, it is drying out already.

Vegetable portion sizes can be tricky to work out. Tonight, I didn’t plan on doing any steamed vegetables, so I aimed for a rough serving size of each vegetable of approximately ½ – 1 medium potato each person and an extra serve “for the pot”. These extra serves are there in case of unexpected arrivals, extra hungry family members or lunch tomorrow for Joe’s work lunch box.

This meal was cooked in our awesome little portable convection oven (where would I be without it!). Just a reminder – if you are using a PCO, add a little water into the bottom to ensure that the air is moist. This will stop your vegetables from drying out. If only I had of remembered that trick before I cooked tonight…

I only marinaded this chicken over a five hour period. I would LOVE to have done it for a full 24 hours. I would recommend a longer soaking time. If you do marinade for a longer period, ensure that you agitate the container periodically to ensure that all the pieces are still sitting in the buttermilk.

I boned out a whole free ranged chicken, as whole birds are often much cheaper than pre packaged pieces. Boning out a whole chicken does leave you with a little extra bones (usually considered waste), but these can be saved to make some fantastic home made chicken stock. There is no need to waste any part of the bird, and it will be much more economical. I am sure there will be youtube instructional videos on how to bone out chickens, and you shouldn’t feel daunted – its actually quite easy!

Diabetics Note: I added potato to this dish to lift the carbohydrate content. The buttermilk is very low in carbs, as are all the other ingredients. A slice of bread would bring it within the 30-45g carb allowance (2-3 exchanges). You should also be aware that there can be a lot of fat on the chicken so ensure you trim your meat well to avoid the excess fats. Portion control may be important, however, my BGL’s were fine after this dish.